"Pipkins still says he owns it, and another guy, Rip Malloy, came by and gave us a letter saying CMR owns it," said Narco McFarland, a barber with plaza tenant Head-Hunters Beauty Salon. "This has really been going on for two years. Pipkins goes into foreclosure and gets it back, and goes into foreclosure, and gets it back. This time, maybe, he didn't get it back."

Malloy said Pipkins hasn't paid the mortgage on the property in more than a year and the lender foreclosed.

"He tried to file for bankruptcy after the foreclosure, but the court didn't buy it," Malloy said.

Pipkins said he filed for bankruptcy in September and CMR "illegally seized" the property the following month.

Vallejo's real estate and assets manager Steve England said the city's redevelopment agency rents a space in the plaza for Child Start -- an early adolescent child development agency. He said it's found itself, along with the rest of the plaza's tenants, "caught between two parties claiming to be owners and demanding rent."

"It's been a really confusing thing," England said. "When you have two separate parties sending demands for rent, with both claiming ownership."

The city received a letter from the Solano County Superior Court on Nov. 30, saying CMR owns the property, England said.

But Pipkins insists he still owns the plaza and that the matter is still being worked out in the courts.

"CMR is trying to steal my property," Pipkins said in a phone interview. "They're trying to seize my rents. And they're not taking care of the place. Garbage is piling up."

Malloy sees things differently. He said the property was returned to CMR in October.

"Pipkins kept coming around demanding rents, so a restraining order against him was issued last week," Malloy said. Though Malloy declined to provide a copy of the order, Pipkins confirmed he's been forbidden by the Solano County Superior Court from collecting rents until the bankruptcy court rules on his case. Also, there's a pending civil suit scheduled for February on the matter, he said.

"I'm suing CMR for defamation and libel for telling my tenants I was in default when I wasn't," he said.

The 33,000-square-foot Fairgrounds Plaza, on Fairgrounds Drive at Taper Avenue, was built in 1989 by Benicia doctor Larry Kassis and his father. It was sold in 1999 for $1.5 million.

Over the years it has housed city and county social services agencies, a Vallejo Police Department sub station, a senior meals program, Head Start, and various other businesses, most of which are gone now.

Malloy said CMR intends to fix up the property, which is now mostly vacant, and fill it with businesses and restaurants to serve the community's needs.

"The community has not been serviced by the opportunity that's there, and we're looking at filling the empty spaces, cleaning the place up and turning it around," he said. "It's not doing anyone any good if it's just sitting there dark and unattractive. But, it's a process and it will take some time."